A Dream for Hannah (11 page)

“Like what?” she asked sleepily. “Is Shep barking again?”

“No,” he said, “something else. I don’t know what. Would you get up and check the children’s rooms?”

“Okay,” Kathy muttered as she reached for her housecoat and put it on over her nightclothes.

As Kathy climbed the stairs, Roy went out to the porch again. He stood there and listened to the low hum of the night sounds and wondered what was wrong. Then, off in the distance, the headlights of a car cut into the night. From the movement of the lights, he was sure the car would pass their house. It was coming fast. Waves of light bounced around on their uneven gravel road. Yet, there was nothing unusual in that. Cars drove this road frequently, and they often drove fast.

It was when Roy heard the car abruptly slow down that his attention became focused. The tires slid on the gravel by their driveway, and the car came to a complete stop. The passenger door opened, and a girl got out. Roy couldn’t make out who the girl was, nor did he hear any voices. But then he heard the squeal of tires on the gravel road as the car sped off. The taillights dimly lit the shape of the girl the car had left off. Even in the darkness that settled around her, Roy could tell she didn’t move, as if she were frozen to the spot.

Roy, startled out of his surprise, moved with his first instinct, which was to get Kathy. He opened the front door and called to her.

She had just come down the stairs, her eyes wide with the news. “She’s not here.”

“Who isn’t here?” he asked.

“Hannah.”

“Look there,” Roy said and pointed with his chin toward the road.

They stood together and looked at the form out by the road.

“Where did she come from?” Kathy asked.

“A car just dropped her off.”

“It can’t be Hannah, can it? She wouldn’t be out without telling us.”

“Maybe we ought to go and see,” Roy ventured.

“But…she wouldn’t do something like this—leave in the night…without telling us.”

Roy took Kathy by the hand and led her down the steps and slowly out the driveway. They approached the still figure who was standing by the road with her back turned toward them. As they got closer, the unmistakable sounds of sobs became evident.

“Hannah,” Kathy said when she was close enough to speak, “is that you?”

The only answer was yet louder cries.

Kathy walked up quickly, reached for Hannah’s hand, pulled her tightly to herself, and asked, “What are you doing out here?”

“He just dropped me off.”

“Who is he?” Kathy asked.

“Peter,” Hannah sobbed.

“Why on earth were you with Peter?”

“He came to my window and offered me a ride.”

“To your window?” Kathy was horrified.

Hannah’s only reply was a sob of regret. “I’m so sorry.”

“Tell me all about it,” Kathy said after giving Hannah a few moments to calm down.

“Peter said…that he wanted to take me for a ride.”

“And you went with him?”

Hannah nodded in the darkness.

“Didn’t you know that’s wrong?” Kathy asked.

“Yes, but I couldn’t resist. It seemed like a harmless thing—just take a nice ride, he said, and then he would bring me right back. I thought it would be okay.

“Have you done this before?” Kathy asked.

Hannah shook her head.

“What happened then?”

“We drove a little, and he parked.”

“He parked?” Kathy’s voice echoed in the night.

“He said we would drive through downtown.”

“What happened then—after you parked?”

Hannah’s voice was weak. “He leaned over and kissed me—just twice, Mom. Really! I thought I’d enjoyed it…Then I couldn’t. I don’t know why. It was then that I told him to take me home.”

“Did he bring you home then?”

“Yes, but he was really mad. He just dropped me off at the end of the lane, making a big fuss. I knew then I could never climb back into my room without you and Dad finding out.”

“Is that why you’re crying?” Kathy asked.

“Not just that.” Hannah broke into fresh tears. “Oh, Mom, how can something like this turn out so terrible? I feel just awful inside. He wasn’t nice at all. I thought he was so wonderful.”

Kathy pulled Hannah to her again and said nothing as the two cried together.

“We had best go inside,” Roy said, deciding to make his presence known. “We’ll deal with this more in the morning. Right now it’s time to get everyone to bed.”

As Roy turned to lead them in, he thought he heard something in the distance, and his eyes caught a brilliant flare of light in the distance down the road. Red and yellow lights rose in a cloud of color that looked close. They soon died down and were replaced with a low hue that also soon faded.

Because they had just turned to walk toward the house, neither Hannah nor Kathy heard the noise or saw the lights.

Roy wondered what he had heard and what could have been the source of the lights. His instincts told him what they were, but he hoped he was wrong.

“Get Hannah to bed,” he told Kathy when they were inside the house. “We will talk some more about this tomorrow. I need to go check on something.”

Kathy nodded and headed for the stairs with Hannah in front of her. Pausing with her hand on the door, she asked, “Where are you going?”

“I’m taking the buggy. Don’t worry.” He turned only for a moment before he pulled on his work shoes.

“Do be careful,” she said and followed Hannah up the stairs.

Roy rushed out to the barn, lit the gas lantern he kept there, and called the horse in. He worked quickly and soon drove the buggy out the driveway and onto the main road, the reins tight in his hands.

Officer Coons, from the Indiana State Police, had also seen the fireball. He quickly pulled his cruiser to the side of the road, made a U-turn, and drove in the direction of the flash. It didn’t take him long to reach his destination and report in. “We have a one-car vehicle accident two miles west of 331 on the County Line Road. Have fire and rescue respond.”

“Causality report?” the response came back.

“Unknown at this time,” he said. “Exiting cruiser to examine the scene now. Does not look good.”

With his flashlight in hand, Officer Coons jumped the ditch and approached the vehicle. Small fires were still burning inside the mangled frame of the car that was wrapped around a tree, but the worst of the fire seemed over. There was no sign of life that he could see.

He lifted his head as the clip-clop of horse’s hooves approached. Although he was in Amish country, he had expected the sound of sirens, not horse’s hooves at this time of the night. Although the accident likely happened because some lover boy was driving too fast on his way home from his girl’s home, that too was strange. This was the middle of the week.

When the buggy stopped, Coons had to jump back across the ditch to deal with it. “Can I do something for you?” he asked.

“Name’s Roy Miller,” Hannah’s father said, leaning out of his buggy. “I live down the road. My daughter was just dropped off by a young boy. I was wondering if this is the same one.”

“What time was that?” Officer Coons asked.

“About twenty minutes ago.”

“You have any information about him?”

“Just that his name is Peter.”

“This one will be hard to identify by his name, I’m sorry to say. Hit that tree pretty hard.” Officer Coons turned his flashlight in the direction Roy had just come from. Long black skid marks were clearly visible. “Looks like whoever this was was driving too fast. You know what kind of car he was driving?”

Roy shook his head. “I’m not sure. I never saw it myself. I think my wife mentioned a blue MGC once. The boy’s been around my daughter before.”

“One of those situations.” The officer was sympathetic. “The color of the paint won’t be much help either, I’m sorry to say, but we can look at the make of the car.”

Coons’ flashlight beam shone across the ditch at the wrecked car frame. The beam only partially reached before it faded away. The officer shook his flashlight to get more light and then brought the beam to bear on the rear of the car. Even from that distance, they could both read the distinct MGC letters.

“Sorry,” the officer said. “Someone close to the girl?”

“No, they were just out for the first time.”

“Did they have some kind of fight or something to cause him to be driving this fast?”

“Yes,” Roy said with a voice that communicated his reluctance to make such an admission. “There was a disagreement. I only found out about it when he dropped her off.”

“He still shouldn’t have been driving like that,” Officer Coons was quick to say. “Hormones, I guess, cost him big this time.”

The wail of sirens came from the distance. The emergency vehicle’s lights mingled with those of the trooper’s cruiser.

“I should be going,” Roy said, slapping the reins and turning the buggy around. As he passed the first rescue vehicle, he turned his head from the burst of bright lights.

When Roy returned home, Kathy was waiting in the kitchen for him. She had lit a kerosene lamp and set it on the table, its flickering light ghostly on the walls.

“What was that all about?” she asked, her voice hushed.

Apparently something about Roy’s face, framed in the kitchen door, brought her to her feet, and Kathy sucked in her breath. “What’s happened?”

Roy sat down, numb, and motioned for her to be seated. “I noticed something—a fire—when we were walking toward the house. You and Hannah didn’t see it because your backs were turned. It looked like it could have been an accident, and so that was what I went to see.”

“And?” Her question hung in the air.

“It was him,” Roy said quietly.

“Peter?” Her hands went to her face.

“Yes,” he said, “I’m afraid so. How are we going to tell Hannah?”

“What happened?” Kathy asked.

“There was an officer there already. From the skid marks, he thinks the boy was driving too fast. When I asked questions, he started asking me questions. Now that I think about it, I probably should have kept my mouth shut.”

“You didn’t tell him that Peter was out with Hannah?” Kathy tried to keep her composure.

“I’m afraid I did. I wasn’t planning to, but the officer started asking direct questions, and it just came out.”

“Oh, my,” Kathy made as if to rise from the chair but sat down again. “What if this comes out? They weren’t even dating.”

Roy numbly nodded.

They sat there for a long time and said nothing. Finally the fatigue of the day took over, and they stumbled wearily to bed. Sleep came soon enough, and when the alarm went off, it was all both of them could do to get up.

Since he started his full-time factory job, Roy had to leave for work early. The farmwork was now limited to evenings and weekends. His ride always came by at five thirty.

“I’m sorry I won’t be here for the talk with Hannah,” he told Kathy as he ate his breakfast. “You could speak with her now but save the news for this evening. I could tell her then.”

“I’d rather not wait,” Kathy said. “I’ll tell her.”

Hearing his ride approaching on the gravel road, Roy nodded and dashed out the door, his lunch pail in his hand.

Kathy let Hannah and her sisters sleep in an extra hour before she woke them. She woke Isaac at the regular time, and he was now outside, busy with his chores. Hannah came downstairs first. Her head was throbbing, but even worse was the pain in her heart. Love had betrayed her.